U.S. Stock Index Futures Decline Amid Election and Fed Meeting Anticipation

Investing.com—U.S. stock index futures fell in evening deals on Sunday as anticipation of a tight presidential election and a Federal Reserve meeting later in the week kept investors averse towards risk-driven assets.

Futures steadied after Wall Street tumbled from record highs last week, following a batch of strong economic prints, especially inflation, and middling earnings from the technology sector.

• S&P 500 Futures fell 0.1% to 5,750.25 points
• Nasdaq 100 Futures fell 0.3% to 20,105.0 points by 18:19 ET (22:19 GMT)
• Dow Jones Futures fell 0.2% to 42,108.0 points

Trump, Harris Set for Tight Presidential Race

Investors were largely on edge before the presidential elections on Tuesday, with recent polls showing Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were set for a tight race.

Recent increases in the dollar and Treasury yields showed some investors were positioning for a Trump victory, which is expected to result in more inflationary policies.

However, polls indicated the race was still too close to call, with uncertainty over the next President likely to weigh on risk-driven markets in the near term.

Fed Set to Cut Interest Rates

Focus this week is also on a Fed meeting, with the central bank widely expected to cut interest rates by 25 basis points after a 50 bps cut in September.

Markets will be watching for any commentary from the Fed on its plans for future rate cuts, especially in light of recent data showing resilience in the U.S. economy and persistent inflation, which dampen the outlook for lower rates.

However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is unlikely to commit to any set pace of monetary easing, maintaining a data-driven approach to policy.

Still, the meeting comes after nonfarm payroll data on Friday showed job growth slowed sharply in October, with downward revisions in readings for the past two months indicating that the labor market was cooling.

Wall St Nurses Weekly Losses Amid Mixed Earnings

Wall Street indexes were nursing losses from the past week following a slew of mixed earnings from heavyweight technology stocks.

While earnings for the September quarter mostly beat expectations, a middling outlook from several major companies, including Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), along with expectations of higher capital spending, weighed on major tech stocks.

Wall Street indexes were afforded some relief from softer-than-expected payroll data on Friday, but they were down between 1% and 3% for the past week.

• S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 5,728.8 points on Friday
• NASDAQ Composite rose 0.8% to 18,239.92 points
• Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% to 42,052.19 points

The earnings season is set to continue this week, with prints from Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR), Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VRTX), and Diamondback Energy Inc (NASDAQ:FANG) due on Monday.